CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Federal law enforcement agencies in Cleveland have begun to focus their efforts on tackling drug distribution networks involving the dark web, along with a more focused approach at targeting dealers whose drugs kill multiple customers.

U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said tackling the opioid crisis in Northeast Ohio requires a multi-pronged approach involving hospitals and public health agencies.

Herdman said the approach is showing its first signs of working. Drops in deadly overdoses were reported in Cuyahoga, Trumbull and Summit counties since at least the beginning of 2018.

Have opioid deaths in Northeast Ohio finally crested ? (take the source link to the video)

The opioid epidemic in Northeast Ohio has shown signs of slowing down after five months of decreasing overdoses and deaths.

Law enforcement honed in on the roots of the opiate crisis by focusing on intercepting fentanyl shipments from overseas that are ordered online and shipped to Cleveland through the mail or commercial carriers, Herdman said.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency set up a new opiate-death investigation squad that focuses on conducting investigations into dealers whose drugs kill customers. It's one of only a handful of such squads in cities across the country.

Herdman said agents are getting better at tackling cases that involve overseas distribution of fentanyl via the dark web, which allows dealers to buy the drugs online, something they never had to do before fentanyl hit the streets in Cleveland sometime in late 2014.

He pointed to recent seizure of 280 grams of fentanyl in Toledo, 100 grams of carfentanil and 44 pounds of heroin in Akron and another seizure of 250 grams of carfentanil in Euclid as successes federal agents had in keeping some of the deadlier drugs out of user's hands.

"We have definitely seen an uptick in cases that are brought by agencies that are targeting fentanyl distribution networks," Herdman said. "We've been increasingly successful, in some ways in a dramatic way, on identifying those networks and disrupting them. Maybe there was a learning curve associated with that. We're not dealing with the same distribution networks we were dealing with 10 years ago."

He also said that with the public-awareness push regarding the crisis, users are starting to use the drugs in groups with naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, at hand in case someone uses a drug with a higher amount of fentanyl or carfentail, which can be deadly with just a little mixed in with heroin or cocaine. Herdman said they've only seen a few indications of these incidents.

"Most people who are addicted are aware that what they're putting into their body is probably not heroin. It's fentanyl, or carfentanil or it's some other fentanyl analog and that they have to take precautions when using it, whether they use in a group or sequentially in a group, whatever it is," Herdman said. "I think that contributes too. Anyone who buys anything has to assume it has fentanyl in it. Cocaine, pills, whatever, it not just can kill you, it will kill you."

Herdman's office, along with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, have focused on prosecuting more drug dealers in cases where users have died. The two offices work together on the cases and decide which office will be able to get more prison time for the dealers under Ohio and federal laws.

Dealers face a minimum of 20 years in prison under federal law if prosecutors can link their drugs to someone's death, unless they strike plea agreements. That approach has been criticized by advocates who say the lines are often blurry between dealers who sell deadly drugs and users who sometimes procure drugs for friends. Herdman said his office focuses on dealers whose drugs have caused several overdoses.

Herdman said he expects to have a double-digit increase in opiate-death prosecutions in 2018.

"Law enforcement has adjusted and adapted very flexibly in the wake of this crisis," Herdman said. "We're just starting to see the impact in the number of deaths."

« Last Edit: June 02, 2018, 10:22:27 AM by Chip »

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This is interesting to me because I live in this area... and the last few weeks I’ve gotten stuff that was unreal potent. My tolerance is fairly large, prescribed suboxone but half of the month I mess around mostly with Opana... which is ~200/mg day habit. Even if I snort 120mg at once I still don’t black out... the other day I got $100 nugget of shit being sold as heroin and snorted it all at once... about 25 mins later I literally lost 2 hours in a gas station parking lot. Woke up drooling on myself and I was floored that happened- wonder if it was carefentanil or whatever... because I’ve done plenty of fent and not had that reaction.

I mean I didn’t **know** that for sure... I had done some from the same person with expected result. When I said I’d done my fair share of fent it was patches I bought from someone not off the street being sold as H.

I wonder the same thing... my only guess is it’s become cheaper and easier to get fent for the dealer than actual heroin. And we all know the addict on the street just wants the strongest stuff possible. I had told my friends about my experience with the stuff I got and both immediately requested me to get more instead of the usual stuff.

It’s crazy but the addicts I know would rather flirt with death for the best high possible than actually be safe.

One of my buddies was like “dude I can’t believe you gamble for thousands of dollars” and I’m like bro you gamble with your life 3-4x a day and you’re worried about me? He laughed. It’s actuslly not funny though if you truly think about it.

Those are insane amounts of carfent. I mean how would the dealer or user EVER know their shit is safe? You gotta think that 10 mcg's of carfent would kill most people. So how would you cut 250 grams of carfent? I don't feel like doing the math but it seems like 1 gram of carfent with 1 kilo of cut would still be too strong.

I need to get on the darknet as 1 gram of carfent would get me at least 100,000 doses. I see why dealers are just seeing $$$ when they think about carfent as 1 gram cut right could get you 500,000 doses that are equal to 200mcg's of fent. Even if a gram costs $1000, you could still sell 500,000 bags for $10 each and make $5 mill. $15 bags would make you $7.5 mill and $20 bags would make you $10 mill. That's CRAZY and really scary to think about.

If my math is off, please let me know. I'm going off the premise that carfent is 100 times stronger than fent. Therefore, 1 mcg would be a decent dose and 5 mcg's would be a really good dose and 10 mcg's would be lethal or possibly lethal.

I'm all for strong opioids and an end to the war on drugs but it seems like carfent should be schedule 0 with intent to sell carrying a long prison sentence. It's just too strong for any dealer or any junky that doesn't have a PHD in chemistry to deal with it.

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